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Field Practicum

The 9-month, 450-hour field practicum is a required 3-quarter course taken throughout your senior year. This practicum is the signature pedagogy of the social work program: students will integrate their gained knowledge and skills with real clients presenting real needs. Placements are at Seattle  area social service agencies. On-site agency supervision is provided by experienced social workers who are committed to furthering social work education.

The field experience is structured and supported to give students an outstanding experience.

Junior Year

  • Intensive practical training in the state-of-the -art counseling lab (both junior and senior year courses)
  • Understanding of working with a diverse array of people: age, racial, ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, language, and gender populations as well as people with varying levels of physical and cognitive ability.
  • Placement process designed to match students with an agency 

Senior Year

  • Focus on underserved populations
  • Engagement with real clients experiencing a range of social problems
  • Integration of academic knowledge and practice-based skills
  • Close individual supervision and continuous feedback by practicum instructor
  • Oversight by Field Education Director

Throughout the practicum experience, students will apply generalist practice knowledge and skills from their coursework to guide their assessment and choice of intervention strategies to strengthen client capacities.  

Frequently Asked Questions 

Field Practicum Manual 

Sample Agencies that Accept Student Interns

Faculty Highlights

Cohan 2Mark Cohan, accomplished scholar of the Steampunk subculture, was featured in the Seattle University Magazine.

Obrien, JJodi O’Brien recently published “Seeking Normal? Considering Same-Sex Marriage” in Seattle Journal for Social Justice.  

Efird, RRobert Efird is back from a Fulbright-sponsored sabbatical in China, where he spent a year working with local communities engaged in environmental education. 

Perry, Gary2Gary Perry presented a paper at the 2012 meetings of the Association of Black Sociologists titled “Class, Take Out Your iPhones: Teaching Urban Sociology with New Media.”